Five Discoveries at CERN That Changed The World
Higgs Boson
The 2012 detection of Higgs Boson was groundbreaking for two reasons. Firstly, the elusive particle was postulated in 1964, almost five decades prior to discovery. Its search required big budget and collaboration of many countries.
Secondly, because the Higgs Boson explains as to how fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks have mass. Due to its pervasive nature, Higgs particle was termed the God Particle by several scientists. However, Peter Higgs himself didn’t endorse the name.
World Wide Web
It was physicist Tim Berners-Lee who developed the concept of hypertext at CERN in 1989. Many engineers including Robert Cailliau chipped in and the first website was ready by 1991, as a tool to allow scientists to share information.
The world wide web was made freely available to the world in 1993 so that anyone anywhere could connect to the internet. Not only www, the scientists at CERN have also helped develop technologies like PET scans, which is used to detect cancers.
Antimatter
Antimatter was theoretically described by physicist Paul Dirac in 1928. Creation of antimatter could shed light on why almost everything in the known universe consists of matter.
In 1995, scientists at CERN successfully created a stable antihydrogen for the first time. In 2002 they produced antihydrogen atoms in large quantities, but for an incredibly short lifespan, just several milliseconds.
In 2011, scientists were able to maintain antihydrogen atoms for more than 15 minutes, a historic feat. This will allow them to conduct a more detailed study of the antimatter and to create stable antimolecules soon.
Weak Neutral Current
Weak neutral current, a prediction of electroweak theory, is how subatomic particles interact with one another using the weak nuclear force. Here, the word current only implies the exchange of Z particle and has nothing to do with electrical current.
In 1973, weak neutral currents were detected by CERN in a neutrino experiment and confirmed the electroweak unification theory by Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg who were recognized by the Nobel Prize in 1979.
Carriers of the weak nuclear force were proven by the discovery in 1983 of the W & Z bosons in the Intersecting Storage Rings project, which allowed the unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force.
New State of Matter
In the 1970s and early 1980s, cosmologists theorized the conditions immediately after the Big Bang. They predicted the existence of a new state of matter, a quark-gluon plasma in which quarks, instead of being bound up into protons and neutrons, are liberated to roam freely.
One of the objectives at CERN is to mimic those early universe conditions. In doing so, detection of quark gluon plasma was confirmed in 2000. The then director general of CERN called it an important step forward in the understanding of the early evolution of the universe.
Summing up
You will be surprised to know that of all the people working at CERN, only 3% are physicists.
They employ technicians, engineers, IT specialists, writers, etc. who not only aid the advancement of physics but also help change the world by innovating medical, computing and aerospace technologies.
See more here wondersofphysics
Header image: Oxford University Press
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
bill
| #
The prediction of the Higgs Boson and other sub-atomic entities is possible because of an extremely organized universe. It is not a result of a so-called Big Bang, a theory which the majority of scientists are more and more abandoning. Increasingly, reputable and very credible scientists, are coming to the conclusion that an intelligent mind is behind our universe thus making such predictions possible. Finally, the Periodic Table is an example of such. Elements were predicted before they had been discovered, because of the extremely organized nature of atoms. To take this further, the underpinning of the elements exist because of a very, very organized sub-atomic world.
Reply
Howdy
| #
WWW wasn’t a discovery, it was an invention.
Reply
yougottaloveme
| #
Yup, Algore come up with it.
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi PSI Readers,
Someone must have observed: If it is said often enough people will believe it.
“They employ technicians, engineers, IT specialists, WRITERS, etc. who not only aid the advancement of physics but also help change the world by innovating medical, computing and aerospace technologies.”
The source of what you just read in this article are paid WRITERS. Ponder this fact! I wrote my own thesis. My major professor wrote “scientific articles” based upon my experimental results reported in my thesis. There were no PAID WRITERS involved.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply